Kotick On IW Scandal: I Was Betrayed By My Friends

You all know the story by now; the one involving former IW bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West, and how those guys are now in a heated legal battle with the world's biggest game publisher. Well, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick isn't pulling any punches; he told Edge he "would be jailed" for what his former friends did. Said Kotick:

"The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I would have never expected them to do. We’re a public company, we’ve got ethic obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.

You can’t use the company and the company’s assets for your own personal benefit, and you can’t use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you’re not allowed to do that! And so we didn’t have any choice."

Activision fired West and Zampella back in March, which led to Infinity Ward losing 35 more staffers, who all left soon after. Many of the employees allege Activision was holding royalty pay "at ransom" and the group of plaintiffs are seeking many millions in a court settlement. However the ugliness plays out, Kotick will always be unhappy about the whole affair, and he also knew they'd "lose a lot of really talented people" after firing Zampella and West:

"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends.

We knew that when we had to fire Jason and Vince we were going to keep we were going to lose a lot of really talented people. That’s one of the really difficult decisions as the CEO of a company, where you step back and say, no good is going to come of this, they’re going to leave and probably have a really hard time being productive or successful ever again, and we’re going to lose some talented people, and there’s nothing we can do about it. There wasn’t.

It’s one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you’re betrayed by your friends."

We're not about to pass judgment in any way, shape or form. West and Zampella don't exactly have a squeaky clean past (do the research) and in such cases, it's more than a little likely that one can find "wrong" on both sides. Either way, it's just unfortunate such things have to happen at all.

I'm not asking people to stop liking their games, I loved the first MW. But Activision as a publisher and its executives are pests, and the more powerful they become, the worse this industry will get. Don't tell me you agree with the garbage that comes out of Kotex's mouth.

I meant on THIS matter, the court battle between Activision and former IW heads. And while I did make that prediction, I never said anything else, now did I?;) I'm just giving a weather forecast of what the comments were gonna be like.

You know, the thing about this is that it's all in court. Coming out in an interview and making broad accusations and wild statements about ethical breaches and being jailed doesn't do anything but inflame the situation.

None of us know the particulars of the actual events, so none of us are in a position to do much or say much. There are two sides to every story, Kotick knows one, the IW guys know the other, the truth probably lays somewhere between the two. But either way, neither party in this dispute needs to be bad mouthing the other in the media. Honestly, Mr Kotick is senior enough in a huge corporation that he should know better than to speak out in such a manner about something that is already in court.

It's too bad this type of thing has to happen in our beloved industry. There's no doubt in my mind that everyone has something they've done wrong in this scenario. I'm very interested to hear how it goes down in court.

As for Koticks words, he should probably not talk about it when the issue is being handled in court. Either way, it doesn't make either party look good.

not so sure its very professional to giving statements about how he was really bummed about the whole ordeal, and that he might have even been emotionally hurt and betrayed.

HELLO?? Isn't this the bobby kotick who we all know doesnt think, at a corporate level, that games and sink manufacture are any different? This guy's a businessman. I doubt he felt any more remorse (or attachment) than a gardener pruning a plant. All this statement is corporate spin, believe it.

I think the problem is kotick... I mean if it wasn't then why would over 35 ppl up and leave the company... And nobody say they left to go zampella and west new company bc a lot of them just quit and didn't joing the new company... So that just leads me to believe that the problem is Activision and Kotick

Besides... I hope Koticks get F*ucked with this lawsuit... Mayb it will teach him to stop being such a prick and to shut his Yap... I mean, didn't he just diss a bunch of developers saying Bungie was the only small company left that makes good games?... Please... i'd take sucker punch,naughty dog,or insomniac any day of the week...Last edited by Deathb4Dishonor on 9/27/2010 11:54:53 AM

We all know how Kotick is, a money hungry crazed monster who tries to screw everyone over, and act like it isn't his own fault and tries to shed light on other people who didn't do anything wrong and put a bad light on people.

"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends."

Why would anyone want to be friends with you? If something doesn't go your way you try to sue them or sabotage their reputation.

You are the definition of a scum bag Kotick.

EDIT: I'm sure if Kotick wasn't at the company it would be a better company.Last edited by Clamedeus on 9/27/2010 12:35:19 PM

Calling them his friends puts a certain, I don't know, sad element to this whole mess. I mean let's face it, how many REAL friends does a rich man have? The fact that the people he refers to as friends are basically his employees, and now they've gone and done something that he feels is criminal, well, to me, that makes the whole situation rather sad.

Truth is usually somewhere between two or more extremes...like the article says, there's probably a lot of blame on both sides. However, Mr. Kotick has made his own reputation for being a massive jerk besides all of that.

I cant remember anything activision ever saying being good. their devs have been pretty good. but activision.hold on while i stop tourettes coming through because they are SHCOKING.so no activision. please just try and make your customers happy.

@club80, the lawsuit he lost against the female lawyer wasn't for sexual harassment, it was for unpaid wages. he was ordered to pay 1.4 million last july. the case that the lawyer was defending kotick on was a sexual harassment lawsuit that was eventually settled out of court. here.

got to love it how he makes it sound like hes the innocent bystander and their the bad guys!ok, if they are the baddies than A why did you hold back royalties they were entitled 2?and B why did almost the whole studio leave?if you have 2 parts to a puzzle, and one leaves than obviously its the other causing the problem.no?

I understand all the hatred that gets thrown Bobby's way. I think that some of his ideas are crazy I think the way he handles certain situations (like this one) is a bit sketchy. I think that Blizzivision as a whole is not nearly as creatively interesting as it's competitiors. But at the same time I have an underlying respect for the way Kottick handles himself. There's a certain candidness to the way he addresses the media. We all know that the goal of every major company (gaming or otherwise) is to wring as much money out of it's consumers as possible and to increase their profit margin as high as they can. But in the world of gaming Kottick is one of the only head honchos to be honest about his goals. All of the major publishers are trying to get more money out of us at least Kottick says so straight up.

I think you mean "faux-candid". kotick has a certain way of speaking that makes you think he's being candid, but is he? Or, does he just have a message he wants to get out and knows that the faux-sincere, faux-candid delivery is very effective?